VACATION
by S J Smith-Evil Little Dog
Summary: Winry wants a vacation.  Ed's starting to realize why it might be a good idea.


**Title:** V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

**Author:** S J Smith

**Rating:** Teen

**Disclaimer:** Arakawa owns this sandbox. I'm just playing in it.

**Summary: **Winry wants a vacation. Ed's starting to understand why.

X X X

"You want to go away somewhere? Together?"

Why did Ed get that dumb look on his face right after she made the suggestion? Why did he have to say it like it was a bad idea? Winry wanted to roll her eyes and sigh, but figuratively bit her tongue. "Yeah?" No, no, she hadn't meant it to sound like a question! "Yeah! I mean. Don't you want to go somewhere?"

Ed still had that poleaxed expression and Den was climbing all over him now. How she'd gotten into the hammock was beyond Winry's comprehension, but her dog was sprawled on her boyfriend's stomach, where rightfully, she ought to be. Den always got there first, though. It was almost like she was jealous of Winry cuddling with Ed. Another thing they could avoid if they went on a trip together.

"I don't know." Ed screwed up his face. "I mean, look what happened last time we went away together." Half to her, half to Den, he said, "I got a concussion. Someone wanted to kill us both, skin us and put us on display at his house." Rubbing Den's ears, he went on to the dog, "Yes, he did."

Den smiled, beating her tail against Ed's thigh.

Okay, so Ed was right. Mr. Mustang had set up a…rendezvous…between the Elric brothers and her in a city known for its romantic overtones, mostly so she could do maintenance on Ed's automail. Ed and she had gotten kidnapped, but, "We got out of it! And this time, we won't let Mr. Mustang set up where we're going." Winry still believed Ed's one-time superior officer had wanted someone in place to find out why all those people were going missing, even if Ed waved off the idea as being too clever for Mr. Mustang to come up with. Al, at least, had looked thoughtful when she'd mentioned it, though Winry wasn't sure if he believed it, either.

Cocking an eyebrow, Ed asked, "What about your customers?"

"I'd need to let Mr. Garfiel and Granny know when we're leaving, so if any emergencies come up, they can take care of them, either in Rush Valley or here." Winry shrugged. "It's not like we'd be gone more than a couple of weeks." Not all of her customers were as time-consuming as Ed was, either, except for a few of the old men who wanted to flirt with their pretty young mechanic. And a few of the younger men who wanted to flirt with their pretty young mechanic. Good thing Ed hadn't realized that yet, he'd have chased off some of her better customers.

He nodded, rubbing his chin. "And Al?"

"Al is too busy flirting with Nelly to notice us going." It was cute, watching Al and Nelly circling each other, even if Winry figured the younger Elric would seal the deal a lot faster than Ed had gotten around to it. Snapping her fingers, she got Den to climb off of Ed, leaning over him when the hammock stopped swinging. Winry knew he had a great view of her breasts and she wasn't too proud to take advantage of his fascination with her body. "Think of it this way, Ed." Pausing, she licked the tip of her finger and put it against his mouth, watching as he flushed up from the collar of his shirt to the top of his head. "If we go away together, we don't have to worry about Den scratching at the door, or Granny using the broom to hit the ceiling when we're too loud, or iAl./i" Who liked to rate their sex lives on the noises he heard, and wasn't above giving verbal replays of what Ed sounded like when he was coming. Winry spared a thought she'd have to sock him in the arm for it, especially if he was sharing the information with Nelly. "So, what do you – Ed!"

Squealing as he pulled her into the hammock, Winry felt the netting rock wildly beneath them, and Ed's warm arms holding her against his chest. The kiss he almost planted on her mouth was rough and enthusiastic, and with her bent knee resting on his crotch, a particular heat let her know he really liked the idea. "Okay," he mumbled against her ear, "you talked me into it." Ed sucked her earlobe into his mouth, lightly rattling her studs against his teeth, and Winry felt a familiar warmth pooling in her stomach. "Especially if we don't have to listen to Al for a week or so." His growl made tingles run up and down her spine.

"He's not around right now," Winry murmured, kissing Ed's jaw and sliding a hand down his body.

"Mm," Ed wriggled a little, letting go of her ear. "Yeah, but," he shot a glance toward the house. "The old hag is always watching."

Reluctantly, Winry settled against him, thinking of things she'd like to do to Ed when there wasn't anyone around to comment on where they'd been or what they'd been doing or why there was that amazing grass stain on her back. There were times when Winry wished Ed still could use alchemy – clapping his hands to get grass stains out of clothes had to be the handiest thing ever.

His arm around her shoulders, Ed ran his fingers along her bare shoulder, staring up through the leaves on the tree. "Where should we go?"

"Someplace warm."

"Dublith's hot."

Winry wrinkled her nose. "Someplace where everyone doesn't know you."

Ed smirked. "I used to be the Fullmetal Alchemist. I'm not sure there's anywhere in Amestris we can go where people don't know me."

"Yeah," Winry told him dryly, "you're infamous. We'd better check in under my name, then." Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea. The only people who really knew who she was were other automail mechanics, from her building reputation.

"Hmm." Ed seemed to like the idea, too. "Someplace with room service, so we can laze around in bed all day if we want." Another appealing idea, though Winry discarded it after a few seconds. Neither Ed nor she was much for just lying around, and if they went someplace new, they could explore and entertain themselves that way. Even non-stop sex got boring after a while. Winry might be willing to try it, though, just for the sake of imperial testing. How long would it take Ed to get bored with sex? He was a guy, would he even be able to? "You're thinking too hard." His finger tapped her nose.

"Mm, about where we might go and what we might do."

Ed clutched her close, his hand slipping from her shoulder to her butt, giving it a squeeze. "I know what I want to do," he growled in her ear, reigniting the tingles in her stomach. "You, me, room service. It sounds good." Shifting his hips, he said, "Really good. Can we leave tonight?"

Using his chest for a brace, Winry raised up a little bit. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah." Ed blinked and nodded, his expression clearing from some sort of lustful haze to calculating deviousness. "Yeah, if we leave tonight, we can catch the last train through Rezembool," he craned sideways, checking out the angle of the sun, "though we'd have to pack now and go." He squeezed her shoulder. "If you want to go."

Winry slapped his chest lightly. "It was my idea!"

"Then let's go!" Ed started moving, making the hammock rock wildly. Winry rolled out before she could be pitched out of it, Ed landing on his knees and scrambling up. He grabbed her hand and started at a run for the house. "Tell Granny and call Mr. Garfiel, I'll start packing," he said as he hauled open the back door, nearly pushing her through it in his rush. Pausing for a second, Ed pressed a firm kiss against her mouth, his eyes open and gleaming through it before he broke away, running through the house.

Granny raised her voice in familiar protest at the stress of pounding automail on her flooring and Winry took a deep breath. Time to break the news to the family, and then, they'd be gone.

"You're sure about this?" Granny gave her a nonplussed look over the bowl of her pipe, stopping her process of cutting biscuits with the rim of a drinking glass.

"Of course!" Why wouldn't she be? "Unless you don't think you could handle any automail emergencies that might come up while I'm gone?"

"Don't try it, girl." Pinako Rockbell remained the mistress of the deadpan voice. "I can handle anything that comes up," and here her eyebrows quivered, "but I suppose that's what you want to do with Ed, too."

"Granny!" There was no use trying to fake being shocked, considering who'd raised her all these years. "So you'll be fine?"

"Of course I'll be fine. And so will Al. I may have to tie his penis in a knot to make sure he doesn't get a girl knocked up, but." Her wry mouth tightened around the pipe stem as Winry rolled her eyes. "Actually, I'm sure he's taking precautions. You'd better, too."

"We are! We do. We'll be fine." Winry refrained from yelling, but only just. Did she really need another sex talk? "And you won't have to hear us." There, give it back to Granny in spades.

"Pfft, like I care." She gathered together the remaining dough and patted it out again before picking up her drinking glass again. "Just try to not come home pregnant." A few more biscuits went on the baking sheet. "You've still got a few years to finish your master's program, and a baby would push that off further."

Winry whined. "Granny, I'm not going to get pregnant. We're careful!" Why did this sound like a conversation she should've been having years ago?

"Uh huh." Granny fixed her with a flat stare. "Well, have fun. Try not to scandalize your neighbors in the hotel." Suddenly, she laughed, nearly losing her grip on the pipe stem. "Or scandalize them! What a better way to carry on the Panthress of Rezembool tradition!"

"That's not why we're going, Granny!" Shaking a finger at her grandmother, Winry turned, leaving the kitchen.

She ran up the stairs to her bedroom, finding Ed standing in it, his bag already packed. "She's fine with us going. Get my bag out of the closet, Ed, I'll pack, and we'll have to run to the train station!" Winry pulled a handful of underwear from her dresser drawer, added socks to the pile, and glanced over her shoulder. Ed just stood there, looking a little dumbfounded. "What?"

As if her question snapped him out of it, a slow grin spread across his face. "We're really doing this, huh?"

"Yeah." Winry smiled back.

Ed grabbed her bag from the closet, flinging it on the bed. "Then pack up, Winry, and let's get the hell outta here!" He pulled a dress off a hanger and laid it out for Winry to pack. "Where do you want to go?"

"Maybe we should just hop a train and see where it takes us." Winry could fold efficiently while she was daydreaming. "I like the idea of going south." Picking up the dress Ed had chosen, she laid it in her bag. "Get the other one, too…no, the light blue…yes."

"We could go to the ocean," Ed suggested, giving her a look.

Winry considered it. She'd seen still photographs, and even images of rolling waves in some of the pictures the movie man and brought to Rezembool. The idea made her shiver. "Yes! Let's go there."

Ed slammed the lid of her small bag, latching it closed and heaving it onto his shoulder. "All right! I've heard they've got fish as big as houses in the ocean. Man, what I wouldn't give to catch one of those."

"As if you could!" Winry snickered, unable to resist as she ran down the stairs, ahead of Ed. "Maybe if they used you as bait!"

When she glanced back, his mouth was hanging open, and his brows thunderous. "Mecha-geek! Who're you calling too tiny to catch a fish? I'll show you!" He charged down the steps after her, barely remembering to shout a "Bye!" at Pinako and Den as he rushed past.

Pinako shook her head, giving Den an absent pet. "Kids. At least it'll be quiet around here for a little while. Might be able to get some work done."

Den rubbed her nose against Pinako's skirt, wagging her tail slowly.

"Which means you need to get to work! Go guard those chickens, so I can finish supper." Shooing the dog out of the house, Pinako took a glance toward the road. The kids were already gone on their adventure. "Have a good trip," she said, as if they could hear her, and grinned when it seemed she could hear their voices floating back, "We will!"

X X X


End file.
